With a broad skill-set and strong record representing a range of clients, Jennifer Meyer Babounakis has emerged in recent years as one of Northern Virginia’s leading young divorce lawyers. Now in her 40s, she is today a principal at the Tyson’s Corner family law boutique founded by David Roop, himself one of the DC area’s top practitioners.

She brings to family law a background in social work and personal crisis management, as well as in civil rights law and corporate law. This unique skill combination makes Babounakis an effective family lawyer – a practitioner who is adaptable yet able to work well under difficult circumstances, peers say. Her colleagues too say that as a mother of young children, Babounakis is sensitive to parenting issues, a central theme in the specialty. “For any good family lawyer, it starts with diligence and caring,” she says, “but I try to bring to every case traits such as intuition, a sense of strategy, and resourceful problem-solving. I help my clients to recognize and to achieve positive outcomes.”

She grew up in Northern Virginia, the daughter of a teacher and a prominent Washington policymaker. Her father, PhD economist Jack Meyer, is one of Washington’s better known health-care policy experts, a Principal with Health Management Associates and former Professor of Health Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. After college in Arizona, she pursued a master’s degree in social work, at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond; there she spent two more years counseling patients and families in the emergency room of VCU Medical Center. It was intense work: “I remember a Resident Doctor pulling me aside and asking me to inform her patient of an HIV positive diagnosis. I was only 26 years old at the time and it was one of the most difficult things I’d ever done.”

From there, Babounakis began teaching a medical ethics seminar to medical school students and, with its many relevant legal issues, began contemplating a career in the law. Teaching the seminar was “something of a turning point.” Babounakis moved to New York City to attend law school at night while serving during the day as Chief Aide to Professor Nadine Strossen, then President of the American Civil Liberties Union. She served in both roles effectively, in lower Manhattan, right after the city was convulsed by the Sept. 11 attacks. After rising to the top of her law school class by 2003, she was recruited by many white-shoe Manhattan firms for future employment. Babounakis undertook her next challenge by working as an associate at the prestigious firm of Cleary Gottlieb, first in New York and later DC. She responded to the challenge: “The firm was comprised of intellectual lawyers that expected only the best legal services for its clients from all its staff and counsel. Even the most innocuous documents were to be perfect. I learned a strong work ethic provides the best legal services.” By 2008, married and a new mother, Babounakis desired a balance of motherhood and legal practice, not an easy find in the profession of law. “I know most woman lawyers have to face the same trade-off. The fact is I wanted to be in control over my career and my future.”

In 2009, a friend introduced Babounakis to David Roop, a prominent and well-respected family lawyer. David Roop had just started his own firm and provided Babounakis the opportunity to join him in building an excellent family law firm while keeping a family balance. Babounakis’s unique background separated her from many young lawyers, and her career in family law has grown accordingly. Says she: “I relate well to my clients – I work to make sure they feel heard and validated.”

The Roop Xanttopoulos Babounakis & Klam PLLC firm now has five lawyers. “David has been a great mentor and developer of talent, for all of us – he shares his expertise, and we have a culture of collaboration and high standards.” Away from the office, Babounakis and her husband, a lawyer with Arnold & Porter in Washington, enjoy raising their daughters and spending time with family and friends.